Religious Education Curriculum:
Intent:
At Clerkenwell Parochial Primary School we pride ourselves on our rich history as a Church of England school and our continuing strong ties with our three local churches: St James’, Our Most Holy Redeemer and St Mark’s, as well as our affiliation with the London Diocesan Board for Schools (LDBS), as a party of their academy of schools through London and the surrounding areas. We strongly believe that a highly quality RE curriculum is essential in providing a broad and balanced curriculum to our children, which is taught from Reception through to Year 6. As a Church of England school, following the LDBS RE syllabus, we aim to develop a strong understanding of Christianity as a living faith through the exploration of core theological concepts which critically engages with text. Children will explore how Christianity has shaped Britain’s cultural heritage and the lives of people all across the globe.
As well as teaching about Christianity our curriculum explores other world faiths, such as Buddhism, Judaism, Sikhism and Hinduism. Our students are encouraged to build an understanding of the history of these religions, their core beliefs and values, practices and rituals they follow as well as considering religious texts. Within lessons children are encouraged to question how these are similar and different to Christianity and to consider what they can learn from the religion, as well as about it. Through building a wide knowledge and understanding of these key world faiths children develop tolerance for people practicing different faiths and foster respect for people who share differing religious views.
The Church of England Religious Education Statement of Entitlement (linked below) gives more information on what Religious Education looks like in Church of England schools:
On top of this you can explore the Aims and Pedagogy of the LDBS Syllabus for Religious Education in this link:
Implementation:
At Clerkenwell we consistently endeavor to make learning fun, engaging, memorable and cross-curricular; this is no exception within our RE lessons. RE concepts are taught weekly through immersive, creative and exciting lessons directed by the LDBS Syllabus and that meet the requirements of the National Curriculum. The programme considers children’s prior knowledge and is suitably tailored to ensure that children build the necessary knowledge with engaging and well planned lessons. Wherever possible the RE curriculum is linked to other subject areas, such as Maths and Art and D.T. to ensure that children receive a balanced, broad and well-rounded education that incorporates the interests of the children and which helps prepares them for life outside of school.
This is a copy of the Curriculum Map that we follow from Reception to Year 6:
This is a link to a copy of the Curriculum Overview showing the key skills taught in each unit of study from Reception to Year 6:
On top of lessons children participate in weekly assemblies with our Youth Minister, who teaches core concepts from the Bible in a hands on and exciting way, which enables children to see the purpose of Christianity in their day to day lives and how the core beliefs and values affect decisions they make and the way that they act in a positive way. Once a week children also participate in Mass where children share text from the Bible and build understanding of Bible stories and core beliefs. They are then invited to take communion. Through these additional sessions children deepen their knowledge, as well as getting to see Christianity in practice.
